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Labour's Freebie Festival Rolls On 🎁

Three free GP visits, free cervical screening, expanded free dental care, capped public transport fares and free scans Labour's answer to almost every problem seems to begin with the word "free". The only mystery left is who's picking up the tab, because taxpayers eventually fund every promise, no matter how attractively it's wrapped. As election season approaches, Labour appears determined to prove that if you offer enough freebies, voters might forget to ask what the final bill will be.

Turning the Ship Around.

Many New Zealanders will be looking forward to returning the current coalition government, not because everything has been fixed overnight, but because they remember the state of the country after six years of Labour's grand experiments in governing. Record spending, growing bureaucracy, rising crime, housing pressures, cost-of-living pain and an economy struggling to find its footing were apparently all part of the master plan. Now that the coalition is slowly working through the mess, the usual critics are demanding instant results while conveniently forgetting who created many of the problems in the first place. It turns out that repairing damage takes considerably longer than causing it a lesson the left seems determined to ignore.

UN Job Applications Shouldn't Come With Tax Funding.

If Jacinda Ardern decides to pursue one of the top jobs at the United Nations, that's entirely her right. But New Zealand taxpayers should be asking why they are expected to bankroll the ambitions of a former politician whose supporters constantly remind us that she is already a global superstar. If her international reputation is truly as dazzling as advertised, surely she can secure support on merit rather than relying on New Zealand's diplomatic corps to spend years lobbying, travelling, hosting events and pulling political favours around the world. The Government's job is to represent New Zealanders, not act as a taxpayer-funded talent agency for former prime ministers seeking prestigious overseas appointments.

The last time New Zealand backed a former Labour Prime Minister for the UN's top job, Helen Clark's campaign reportedly cost taxpayers around $380,000, not including the countless hours of diplomatic effort devoted to the cause. While many viewed that as a worthwhile investment, others might reasonably ask whether families struggling with the cost of living should be funding international political campaigns at all. New Zealand already has enough challenges at home without writing cheques for what can sometimes look suspiciously like a very expensive international job application. If a candidate is genuinely the best person for the role, perhaps they should be able to convince the world without first sending the bill to New Zealand taxpayers.